At the end of the words the children suddenly stoop, and the last to get down undergoes some penalty, or has to take the place of the child in the centre, who represents the "rosie" (rose-tree; French, rosier).
Vulgarized forms of the round are common:
Ring around the rosie,
Squat among the posies.
Ring around the roses,
Pocket full of posies,
One, two, three—squat!
And finally it is deformed past recognition:
A ring, a ring, a ransy,
Buttermilk and tansy,
Flower here and flower there,
And all—squat!
This last corruption was in use some forty years since in Connecticut.
No. 63.
Go Round and Round the Valley.
A ring of dancers with clasped hands. A girl circles about the outside of the rest, who join in singing—
